Towers of Aghasba looks like Monster Hunter with less monster hunting, more gliding and more village building

rockpapershotgun.com:

Developers Dreamlit have piped over fresh footage of their open world ecotribal extravaganza Towers Of Aghasba. It's an abbreviated but generous display of equatorial exotica and vaguely prehistoric wildlife, home to such key verbs as "exploration", "village-building", "gardening", "creature-nurturing" and "murdering megasloths with a lump of wood". And look at that, there's a release date perched on top - 19th November 2024.

Kaan liked this one when he saw it at last May's PlayStation showcase. I am quite interested myself, but being an older and more jaded soul, I also suspect a certain hollowness. The premise here is that you're a junior architect of the Shimu tribe, on a mission to restore a landscape racked by the forces of the Withered. To do this, you will mingle with local gods, rebuild villages and plant enormous trees that greenify the surrounding earth and attract various fantasy animals.

These you can kill for their craftable wibbly bits, or nurture for more lasting benefits and because you don't want to slaughter the nice floofy pastel dragon that's just ambled into your jungle. If you find such eco-positivity irksome, or you outright despise pastel colours and floof, you can always run off to areas where the Withered still hold sway.

As the name suggests, the Withered look like giant undead tree people. Their dominions are wrapped in swirling layers of monochrome fog - I'm reminded of Ghost Of Tsushima's Kurosawa Mode. Combat is real-time and seems to be a familiar mix of combos, archery and dodge-rolling. There's a crafting system for weapons, armour and elixirs, but it doesn't appear to be the focus. If you need reinforcements, there's co-op support. Also, you get a hang-glider like the one in Zelda. Don't tell Link. I'm sure he has plenty of spares.

Things I like: the sheer abundance of vegetation and critters in flourishing areas, and the accompanying emphasis on understanding the animals and their habits, which makes me think of Subnautica.